


Matching Set

by rottenwraith



Series: The adventures of Cyborg Catra [1]
Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Catra (She-Ra) Redemption, F/F, Injury, Not Beta Read, Redemption
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-28
Updated: 2019-08-28
Packaged: 2020-09-29 06:37:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20430944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rottenwraith/pseuds/rottenwraith
Summary: After an old friend sustains an injury, Adora wants to make amends.





	Matching Set

**Author's Note:**

> So I heard about this show awhile back, kept forgetting to check it out. When I finally did I shotgunned the whole series in less than 24 hours, then less than 72 hours later, I written this little story.
> 
> Them I left it for about two weeks for fear is was terrible due to my near total lack of confidence. Please be kind.

Adora's apprehension was painfully obvious to all who saw pacing back and forth outside a certain door in Brightmoon Castle, even after she eventually took a seat whilst she waited for word from within the healing room.

'_It's my fault isn't it?_' Adora internally questioned herself as the silent waiting quickly approached unbearable levels of anxiety. '_She's in there because I wasn't able to let go and she was distracted and then-_'

“Adora?” Came the soft voice of a concerned friend, “How you holding up?”

Taking a deep breath Adora began to respond, “I'm-” briefly tempted to lie before her honesty spilled forth, “I don't know Glimmer, you know how weird and complicated things have been between the two of us, and...”

“Come on, talk, it'll help.” Glimmer told her fellow princess as she took a seat next to her.

“You know, I've had trouble trusting her again after everything she did.” Adora started, “Even with all the stuff she'd done since.”

“Like finding my Dad.” Glimmer interjected briefly, her sombre expression betraying her own mixed feelings on the girl in question. Upon noticing a raised eyebrow on her blond friend's face the Brightmoon royal quickly threw up her hands with a short, “Sorry, won't interrupt.”

“Like, finding your Dad, like saving Bow's Dads, like saving you from Shadow Weaver, and all the other stuff...” Adora took a deep breathe to collect herself, “I held out hope for so long that she'd switch sides and she burned me over and over again; then she finally did and I couldn't trust her.”

“Adora,” The blonde felt her friend's hand on her shoulder, gentle and warm, “What happened out there?”

“Basically...”

* * *

The battle was fierce and chaotic, the blanketing stench of scorched earth and seared air as powerful laser blasts screamed across the field from the metal behemoths firing them.

The new Horde laser tanks didn't hit quite as hard as the last overpowerd models, but these had much better armour and an improved rate of fire; as evidence by the sizeable number of laser burns and craters dotting the landscape. The sheer numbers and flanking maneuvers weren't doing the Rebellion any favours.

“How'd they build so many?” Adora muttered to herself as she landed on one of the aforementioned tanks, near effortlessly slicing through the centre of the turret with She-Ra's strength before turning to kick the rest of said turret from it's housing.

“Another one down,” Looking out over the field, how little this accomplishment meant became apparent to Adora, “Couple hundred to go.” The blonde couldn't help but huff a little at the massive number of tanks in sight and the spider bot escorts.

Taking a great leap skyward, Adora threw herself into the mass of foes; striking the ground with enough force to shatter the earth into a crater; unbalancing her enemies. Hopping out of the crater to her nearest opponent, bisecting the bot with deft slash, grabbing a leg and flinging half on the machine into a group of advancing Horde soldiers.

Noticing a column of more spider bots coming her way two at a time, laser charging, Adora quickly morphed her sword into it's shield form as she began to charge at full speed, blasts breaking on her shield like raindrops. As the reached the first of the bots Adora skidded to a stop in a small crouch so as force her shield up in a great blow to send the machine reeling back, it's weapon pointed upward allowing her the opening to plunge a She -Ra powered fist inside it to tear into open from the inside.

The neighbouring bot was undeterred by it's comrade's demise, charged laser failed to fire due to a sword sinking though it's weapon. Having morphed her shield back into it's original form, in a reverse handed grip made it easy to stab the spider bot right where she needed; quickly grabbing the handle properly, Adora hefted the non-functional machine up as a hammer, stepping on top of disembowelled bot in front of her to jump over and slam her makeshift weapon into the next line of bots.

Dispatching several more lines of bots, Adora continued on till this column was no more and she took a moment to breathe and wipe the sweat away from her brow. Regret came quickly as she picked up the telltale sound of a Horde blaster charging up, coming from behind her.

With a great cry Adora swung around quickly, fast and low to try and dodge whilst returning fire with a blast from her sword. Her target was not stuck, unsurprising considering it was basically blind firing.

“Hey! Watch it!” Came the squeaky voice of a certain feline fighter, standing beside the smouldering remains of a spider bot; bo staff in hand.

“I heard a weapon charging...” Came Adora's response with a narrowing of her eyes, her sword still at the ready.

“That guy.” Was the supplied defence to the unspoken accusation, a single clawed finger pointing down at an unconscious Horde solider. “Now come on, we need to pull back.”

“What?” Anger evident on Adora's face, “I'm ripping these guys apart, literally.” The blond finished with a hand mentioning towards the splayed open remains of an enemy bot, as she advanced on the shorter girl.

“Yeah, and you got lured out of position, almost got shot from behind and the point of this battle is to hold the line and protect the Plumeria farms.” Adora tried to respond only to be cut off, “You know, the Rebellion's main source of food.” The feline finished with a small smirk, having to angle her head up at the tall blonde.

The fact that truly annoyed Adora in this moment was that she couldn't find any argument against the points raised; hence her current eye twitch.

“Now come one, we need to go help hold the line.” Sheathing her staff and turning her tail towards the blonde the feline began to make back for the front lines.

“I don't have to take orders from you.” Was Adora's spiteful reply as she crossed her arms.

“My suggestion, Glimmer's order, I'm just delivering it.” The shorter girl didn't even turn while giving her response

“I'm supposed to trust you on that?”

A snort of annoyance was the opening of the reply, “Fine, let's do this.” The feline turned and stalked back towards the blonde, “You don't have to like me Adora, but can you at least trust me in-” The shorter didn't get to finish the sentence.

“I did trust you!” The taller girl shouted, jabbing a finger into the feline's chest, “For the longest time! I trusted you and you burned me time and again! Hell, you nearly destroyed the whole world, and now you want me to trust you?!” Adora refused to let the guilt spawned from the hurt look she'd inspired.

“Adora,” Mismatched eyes closed as their owner took deep breathe as she hung her head in shame at her past actions; as she raised her head she began, “I-” Her sentence died as her eyes widened with shock.

The next moment Adora felt herself being thrown to the ground by those familiar hands, bewilderment run through her before she heard the screech of a high powered energy blast flash through the air.

And the scream.

Then came the sight of a body thrown aloft falling to the floor.

“CATRA!” In an instant Adora was on her feet, eyes locating the source of the blast, sword sent spinning towards the target, obliterating the tank.

“Catra!” Scrambling to get the injured girl, to take in the full extent of the damage, “No...”

Most of the feline's left side was gone, seared flesh and shattered bone remaining. Adora started to panic, “Don't worry Catra, you'll be okay, I'll get you some help.” The blonde jumped to her feet and began to scream “Medic! Someone Help! We need some help over here!”

“A-Dor-Ra.” The pained chocked words barely there as the intact right arm grasped at the air.

“Catra, don't talk, save your strength, you're not dyeing here.” Adora took her hand in an attempt to comfort her old friend, “Medic!” The blonde continued to scream, before her attention was drawn to the injured girl by her squeezing hand.

“This-Is-Good...” Catra chocked out with her one good eye meeting Adora's and showing contentment, before it began to droop closed.

“Don't you dare do that, don't you even dare think that!” The horror played through Adora's mind as she feared losing the oldest friend she'd ever known, fortunately she had newer friends.

“Adora, whats- SWEET MERCIFUL MOONS!” Came a shocked cry out of a burst of sparkles.

“Glimmer! Catra's hurt!”

* * *

“And you know the rest.”

“Whoa...” Was all Glimmer could say for the moment.

“Yeah.” Adora brought her knees up to her chest with her arms around them. She was still having trouble understanding what Catra had said to her.

“Did she really say that...”Glimmer started, but was unable to finish the question when she noticed her friend pull her legs in closer.

“Yeah, she did.” Adora tried to hold back the telltale stinging at the corners of her eyes as turned over the implications in her mind. “Glimmer, you don't think that maybe Catra wants to...” The rest of the theory was left unsaid, not that it needed to be elaborated.

“Well, you've known her longer than me, but honestly...” Glimmer trailed off as she became lost in thought for a moment that seemed to stretch on far longer than is should have, agonizingly long for Adora. “I don't think so, she's been trying really hard to make up for everything, so I doubt it.”

The blonde girl a small snort of laughter at her own foolishness, “Thanks Glimmer.”

“Anytime Adora.” The young princess gave her friend a warm and caring hand on her shoulder.

“So how much longer do you think they'll be -”

“Success!” Called out Entrapta as she burst out of the healing room with the usual massive smile she wore after a successful scientific endeavour.

“She's okay?” Adora leapt to feet, asking the purple mechanist, eyes full of hope.

“Better than okay, though it did take longer than expected to calibrate the First One tech's thaumaturgical circuits to work in parallel with the runestone fragment so as to prevent immune response and possible cybernetic implant rejection.” Entrapta's in depth explanation fell on confused ears as per usual.

“Entrapta, small words please.” Glimmer requested whilst pinching the bridge of her nose.

The mechanist look thoughtful for a moment before answering, “I don't think I can use smaller words than that.” The Brightmoon royal only response was an eye twitch.

“I'm just going to go she her, okay.” Adora interrupted, with a point towards to the door; warranting an response from Entrapta “Oh, sure. She's awake, has been for awhile, just needed to run through some tests to make sure that to make sure that the cybernetic connections where giving and receiving proper neural feedback and-”

“Small words!” Glimmer cut off Entrapta with irritation as Adora, rolling her eyes at the drama between the two princesses.

* * *

Entering the healing room, now empty save for a single occupant; Adora found the patient on her feet, looking out the window as rain plinked on the windows. She seemed to be looking down at something in her hands.

“C-Catra?” The girl in question perked up at Adora's prompting and turned for the blonde to take in the sight of the 'better than okay' Catra.

Her modesty only protected by a tightly wrapped bandage, causing a small blush to rise on Adora's cheeks. Taking in the overall sight gave Adora a rather uncomfortable flashback to when Catra had been corrupted by energy from the unstable portal, as though the right half of her was missing, overwritten by something else; this was quite the opposite.

Her entire left arm had been lost completely at the shoulder and replaced with a cyborg limb Entrapta had built from scratch with whatever First One's tech she had as evidenced by the vaguely crystalline appearance of certain parts with more modern tech evidently around the joints. Thankfully none of the parts had any writing, Adora doubted Catra would live down having something like 'lunch' written on her arm.

The more modern, metallic, tech likewise dominated the majority of repairs that covered the upper left side of her torso; still a few bits of the more advanced First One's tech parts. The most striking part the really captured Adora's attention was the left eye.

“You match now.” Was the the blonde's first comment to her feline comrade, who quietly raised a confused eyebrow at the comment before wordlessly holding up her mismatched arms, one mechanical the other flesh. “I-I mean your eyes, they're both blue now.”

“Huh?” Catra was taken aback at the comment raising her mechanical arm to check her reflection to confirmed what she'd just been told; finding a father nasty looking line of scar tissue, courtesy of a stray piece of shrapnel, leading to the new glowing blue replacement. “That's new, might get that fixed latter.”

“Don't!” Adora surprised both herself and Catra with that little outburst considering the look the the feline's face. “It looks good, the blue.” The blonde added with a small flush of embarrassment at her sudden insistence.

“Okay then,” Catra became awkward now, not sure to act about around Adora at the moment, “Thanks for stopping-”

“You look a lot better,” Adora interrupted, and resisted the urge slap her forehead with her palm.

Catra gave her usual throaty laugh, tinged with a hint of apprehension, “Not exactly a high bar to pass, Adora.”

“Good point.” Was the blondes response as the awkward silence grew between them until it became almost physically painful.

Catra was rather eager to free herself from the uncomfortable moment that seemed to be stretching out be. “Well, See ya-”

“I'm sorry, okay!”Adora suddenly interrupted, shame marring her features.

“What for?” The confused feline inquired.

“For giving up on you,” The blonde started.

“Adora.” An attempted interruption.

“For not trusting you after all you've done for my friends and the rebellion to prove yourself,” The explanation continued.

“Adora.” Another failed interruption.

“For getting into an argument with you in the middle of a battle and nearly getting you-”

“ADORA!” Catra screamed to finally get a Adora's attention, the volume shocking her into silence “Can I talk for a bit?” The request received a short nod, “Good, now if we're getting everything out in the open, I want to say thank you.” Catra took in the look of mild confusion on Adora's face before clarifying. “For giving up on me.”

“Wha- Catra-” The blonde tries to begin before being cut off by a raised hand.

“No Adora, just give me a minute to explain, please...” The feline ran a hand through her hair as she prepared herself for the coming confession.

“Okay then, Adora, you're so... You, you never give up trying to save anyone and then you gave up on me, I was like 'Holy Shit, am I really that bad?',” A shrug of her shoulders “So I thought about it, a lot, till I realised that you never tried to hurt me or make me feel unworthy; Shadow Weaver on the other hand...” Catra took a deep shuddering breath at the mention of her former guardian; Adora's heart couldn't help but ache for the girl before her.

“I was _obsessed_ with earning her respect,” Was hissed through grit teeth, “Her approval, her... Affection...” Catra avoided using a certain word that Shadow Weaver did not deserve to be associated with, “She was dangling that in front of me for years,” A clawed hand run down her face as she tipped her head back; a mirthless chuckle escaping her throat. “So embarrassing, how she kept managing to play me, play me against you.”

“At least you caught on to the lies without seeing a devastated village.” Adora quickly added with shrug, feeling like Catra wasn't giving her intelligence enough credit.

“Still didn't catch on to the really important part...” The feline's hand moved away from her face as her head fell forward with a weary sigh, once more gazing down with an air of shame, “Don't excuse all the crap I pulled though.”

“Catra...”

“So don't apologise for giving up,” Catra suddenly met Adora's eyes with intensity, “Weird as it sounds, giving up on me was the best thing for me, I finally managed to get my shit together, so don't feel bad about it, okay?” She finished with expression that was half way between her usual smirk and a genuine smile.

Adora liked the look.

“Okay then,” The blonde gave a small nod of acquiescence with her own smile, before placing her hands on hips with a look of defiance, “But I still apologise for not giving you any credit for helping out with the rebellion.”

Catra let out an over the top groan before responding, “Fine, apology accepted, sheesh,” The feline shrugged with exaggeration, “You try do something nice for a girl but she just keeps apologising.”

Adora, felt indignant for all of an instant before noticing that old grin she'd missed, her own expression morphing to match. Shaking her head at the absurdity of the situation, both of the old friends descended into giggles.

“Are we... good...okay?”Adora asked, her nervous smile showing her naked hope.

“Yeah, I think we're good.” Catra answered as her own giggles died down.

“Wanna hang out latter, maybe spar or something, test out the new arm?” The blonde was eager to embrace the reforged connection with her oldest friend.

“Sure, after Entrapta gives the all clear, she mentioned something about...” Catra's eyes just narrowed in frustration for a moment before continuing, “I'm not even going to bother trying to remember her techno-babble; I just gotta wait for it to settle of something.” Eyes roamed over the new limb, wondering how well it would perform.

Noticing a small something left by one of the healing room's previous patents, Adora had an idea, “Chess?” Was the simple question, paired with a pointed hand to the suggested chess set.

“Sure, why not?” Catra agreed with a slight shrug.

After setting up the board the former Horde officer with a unique connection to First One's tech with an embedded runestone enjoyed a short game of chess, with a former Horde officer with a unique connection to First One's tech with an embedded runestone.

“Checkmate.”

“WHAT?!” Adora's voice cracked in shock as she took in the board in front of her. “That was like, only four moves! How did you do that?” The only answer she received was Catra's proud smirk.

**Author's Note:**

> There we go, I hope you liked it and I thank you for your time dear reader.
> 
> Comment are appreciated and encouraged. 
> 
> I also hope the symbolism wasn't too on the nose.


End file.
